IMPROVing an Old UFO

In 2011 I went to a class by Judy Laquidara.  She is a very traditional quilt designer who loves borders. She creates complicated blocks and then adds 12 borders, literally.

It was the only thing at the time, if I wanted to take a class, traditional was all there was.  If I wanted to buy fabric, traditional was all there was.  So I had a side gig, so to speak, of the modern stuff.  And they chuckled at me and pointed when I walked by.......maybe not that bad, but they all knew I didn’t fit that “traditional “ mould.

The box got put aside in 2011, somehow made it through the flood intact, and just taken out yesterday.  There was about 25 bags of precut pieces for future blocks.  No way, was I going to piece more of those blocks. So I took out some pieces and tried to figure out new things to do with the parts.

I put a border of the triangles around the 4 existing blocks, and decided it looked too traditional for me.

I ended up with 10 improv stars with some scattered triangles.  Not sure the triangles will actually stay, or be in that format. But that is how it evolved over the last two days.

More later.

Stay safe everyone!!!!

Hanging a 6 Woman Fiber Art Show

Frank kept telling me I was getting worse, not better.  So he called and got me an appt at our doctor.   I drug my illness wracked body to the car.  I was coughing my fool head off, and struggling to breathe.  Frank looked normal.

When Doc Lee came in and examined me, he looked at Frank and asked if he was having symptoms as well.  Frank says, Why, Yes.

The doctor listened to his lungs, decided on shots and pills for us.  I was coughing and trying to breathe the whole time.  He left only to return a few mutes later, and once again listened to Frank's chest.

He even said, I am really concerned about you, Frank, and asked the PA to take his temperature once again.  No temp, once again.

He leaves....again.   And returns again......Yep, to listen to Frank's chest.



Hey, I am the one that is so sick here!  Frank will do anything to upstage me.  Right?

We both got shots, but I got a steroid shot and antibiotic pills, and Frank got antibiotic shot and steroid pills.  Go figure.

I guess this worked because we were much better this morning when we were at Denham Springs to hang what I have been calling the 8x8 Show because we each had an 8x8 panel space.

Afterwards we all went to eat at Randazzo's where I knocked over my extra large Dr. Pepper-no-ice  dousing Tracy's salad, her lap and all over Judy.













Here is Frank putting up my Big Oil.  You can catch a glimpse of my Crow Morning Barn, the Matisse Lady Michaela, 3613 (my house)  the Sun, and the Spring Forest Modern Robin tree.

Here is Bebe telling us the best place to put each piece.

Tracy and Judy putting up Barbara's artwork.
















Here is Tracy's mosaic artwork

Bebe's embroidery and mixed media

Judy's mixed media

Mine

Mary's fiber art pieces.  

My Color Blocks for Stitch, Sew, Snap, Share #21

So this is what I am working on this week.  The people over at Stitch Sew Snap Share #21 are all over this stuff so go check them out, right?

And a caveat here, I really should be working on the chair I bought for $5 to make for the Habitat Art Auction on the 15th of March, don't ya think?











Judy gave me a random bag  of solid pieces cut into random shapes.  She was taking a class and decided she really didn't like the style or colors so they just sat in the bag for years and years.

And then she thought of me!

So she gifted me with the bag at a Christmas luncheon this year.  I was ecstatic!  Of course.  One woman's trash is another woman's treasure for sure!

So I couldn't wait to dig into this bag of deliciousness.  Fully my intention was to make the quilt that was on the print out.  But as it evolved I really saw an entry into one of the upcoming shows this year.

Not sure what the title is just yet, but it looks like a journey somewhere, doesn't it?

Yesterday I finished the binding on the on the black as coal base.  The free standing color blocks are individual quilts themselves.  They will be attached to the black base and have the effect of an additional layer upon the original black layer.

It will be interesting to see the texture of this piece as it is finished.

It will be interesting to finish this piece.  It seems like I have made a million little quilts......just sayin'

Update:






Today I finished up all the hand sewing and got all the million little quilts attached to the beautiful black background.

See that sphere?  My favorite part!

Print to Fabric Class

Took a class at the Livingston Arts Council today and had a great time learning with 11 other ladies.  I miss having classes with Michael, he was always one of the few guys in quilting and fiber art, so he was a well known figure.  He moved to San Antonio to be near his son after Judy died.  I think a lot of people miss him.

But I digress.

The class was taught by Judy Momenzadeh who has been in a number of the Fiber Art magazines and has recently won a nice ribbon in Houston last November.  She is very creative, very inventive and very willing to try anything!

She went over the techniques she used to create her pieces and had a nice selection of things to show us from her collection.  She even sold a piece in the class!

We worked in Photoshop and a few other programs that are either add ons or separate ones.

She also had some things like digital grounds and fabric treatments that enhance the printing process.

After lunch she had prepared two photos from us; one on fabric and one on watercolor paper.  We used Inktense Pencils and Neocolors Wax Crayons to "paint" the pictures.

Of  course I left both of mine at the Art Council......geez.  But I had this extra one somehow.  So when I got home, I showed Frank how to use the NeoColors.  He has done some watercolor in the way way past and likes it.  He was amazed at how they looked  on the watercolor paper.  He liked it!


Here is the pic we worked on together tonight.  Just using all the crayons in the pack!

Memorial Service

Yesterday Frank, Paula and I went to the Memorial Service for Michael's wife, Judy.  She lost her life battle 3 weeks ago after a long hard struggle.

It was so beautiful.   A long time friend read Michael's words in tribute to Judy.  Their daughter in law read the story of how they met.  And spoke of the sadness of losing her.

Judy was a client of another stylist at his hair salon when they met.  They would drive to New Orleans and come home with 8 or 9 people stuffed in his Camaro!  Ah, those were the days!

Ever since I have known him, it has been clear to see that Michael was devoted to Judy.  He cared for her as her condition worsened for the last several years.  And battled  his own cancer, now for the 4th time. 

I cannot imagine the depth of his loss, the emptiness of his house or the hurt in his heart.

It was beautiful.....and sad. 

You And Me Baby, We're Stuck Like Glue!

Remember that song?  Stuck Like Glue by Sugarland? (If you click here you can see it)

I sure hope you had a great Fourth of July Celebration.  Frank is sitting in the living room with his work all around him, watching the great PBS Special A Capitol Fourth.  I think that is the name of it.  He loves it, I can take it or leave it.  I go in to watch some of the country  ones and Neil Diamond.  The rest I don't even recognize.  He LOVES it!

But, back to the glue.  A designer friend of mine asked me to test drive a pattern for her.  It involved a purse frame and glue.  Not a good combination for me.  It was wracked with pitfalls the entire way.

First I gathered my fabrics, I needed 5 so I decided on a Mardi Gras theme.  Nice, I had some great colors and a mask fabric.  I cut out the pieces.  But for some reason I cut about half of them WRONG.

I know why, I had a series of migraines the day before and the day of the cutting.  So, luckily I had mucho gobblets of fabrico.  So the next day I cut out the correct sized pieces.  They went together nicely but there was a twist to the construction I had never seen before.  Not hard, just done in a different way.

I lived through that and got everything turned out and correct and all.  I was ready to put the purse frame on it.  For a long time I have wanted to put a purse together that had a frame on it so this was going to be exciting.  I searched for three days for that stupid frame.  In the three days, I wrapped up and put away all the fabric I had purchased at the quilt shop 50% and 60% sale, all the fabric I got on the Houston Shop Hop and all the fabric I have torn out of the shelves and tossed in a big pile after using a piece of them.  Oh and all the scraps I have tossed in the basket waiting to be cut up and filed in their respective boxes were all cut up and filed away even.

I am telling you, I did some serious cleaning up to find that purse frame.   And that stupid purse frame never showed up.

So I walk in tonight to work on something and there is the unfinished purse staring me in the face.  Needing to be done so I can do a critique for the designer friend.  And I can't STILL can't find the frame.  I was deciding what to do, when I looked up.

I'll be a purple nosed pig with pink polka dot toenails......there it was.  Staring me right back in the eyes.  Stupid purse frame.  I'll bet it was hiding all along and just came out at to lay in the open like that to make ME think I was the stupid one.

So I found the directions again, and the glue.  And the frame and the purse. At the last second I decided to take some toothpicks along with me to attempt to distribute the glue in the tiny track of the frame.  At Frank's recommendation I was using this glue from the rotating machinery industry that is a strong industrial strength formula that will hold a car to a steel I-Beam at 35 feet in the air while a team of elephants and bulldozers pull in the opposite direction.  This glue had POTENTIAL!

And a good thing too, because the glue was coming out of the tube very very very very fast......all over the place.  I grabbed the small piece of plastic bag the frame came in and put it under the project to keep the industrial strength glue with huge potential to glue the Grand Canyon shut back together again from getting all over my cutting board.  Why was I using that stupid glue in the sewing room and not outside in the work shed?

I realized the fabric was not going to go into the tiny slot in the frame easily.  It was going to take a fight.  So far, I was not glued to anything major, but it was still early in the program.  I found my small screwdriver for one of the machines and began to push the fabric into the frame channel.  It was sort of working.  Sort of not working.  But I was committed by now so I was pushing hard.

I got one half of one side in and tried to move to the other side.  I realized that my finger was now glued to the middle of the frame.  And I had glue on my palm starting to run down my arm.  I managed to turn the piece over and start to push the fabric in the other half of the one side I was working on.

By now I realized I had glued the screwdriver to my fingers.  At least it was in the position I needed it to push the fabric in the frame channel.  I had extricated my fingers but had nothing with which to wipe the excess glue from the purse frame.  Yet.

So I flipped the purse over and thought I was adding LESS glue to the other side's channel, but by the time I got the glue added it was still coming out of the tube again.  I quickly put the top on, and glued the tube to the side of my hand.  I had no time to get it off.  I looked at Hugeaux the Grand-Dog whom we are baby sitting because of the scary fireworks, and he had a piece of paper glued to his ear.  How did THAT happen?


I used my Edward Scissorhand Screwdriver Fingers to push the fabric of the other side into the channel of the other side.  This time I picked up three large headed pins on my forearm.  My left cheek itched but I was too afraid of gluing my finger to my face to scratch it.   

The purse is resting upside down, probably gluing itself to my cutting board as we speak.  I was thinking I needed a new cutting board anyway, you know.

I really like the pattern.  And I want to make another one.  If nothing else to prove to the world that I am not a total ditz.  But I will need the screwdriver off my fingers and stuck to the rotary cutter before I can cut the fabric incorrectly.

glen:  you and me baby, we are stuck like glue...........

Noteworthy Day - friends and quilting

I have some crumby days, like the day my purse was stolen and Frank's window smashed.  But I have some fabulous days as well.  And yesterday was one of those days worth noting.  Noteworthy!

DiNozzo was good all day, a feat nearly unmanageable!  See how small he can tuck his huge lumbering body?  He is so cute he makes you forget, nearly, all the bad stuff he does.  He may have met his match in a pit bull rescue Jackson who quilts and crochets and wrecks havoc.


I met my friend Ann at the fabric shop and we bought fabric at 40% off.  We ate lunch together.  It is good to have a friend like Ann, we are each other's sounding boards.  Sometimes you just need someone to listen, our husbands are cut from the same mold of non-listening stock, so it becomes important for each of us to sometimes just listen.  And know we are being heard.

Then we met our new friends Judy and Mary Ruth for dinner at La Madelaine's in a driving rain story.  Three good things in that sentence!  Rain, La Madelaine's and friends!

At the guild meeting, I introduced Judy and Mary Ruth and they joined so we will have our La Madelaine's dinners once a month!  Judy is an art quilter and teacher.  Her specialty is digital prints and paper fabric.  Check out her website at Mo and Mike.  She uses free motion and digital prints to make the most fabulous hangings.  I need to convince her to do classes here. Yes!  She has a New Orleans scene of architecture and jazz players that is incredible.

Then I actually WON something at the guild meeting.  I won a set of 10 tree of life blocks i the Birthday Raffle and I won the $15 gift certificate from Red Stick Quilt Shop for wearing my name tag.  Funny thing was I have only worn my name tag once in the last year!  What a reward!  LOL.

At the meeting, April surprised me with a tomato to replace the ones DiNozzo ate from the vine.  I chuckled at that, but it made me feel wonderful to know there were people out there enjoying my storytelling.  Patty J is excited to try the bread, Patty A the muffins, and several asked about the chocolate yogurt!  Thank you all for reading, you have no idea how I love it.

I nearly have Amber's quilt completed, the machine is performing beautifully, not one break in thread and I am 2/3 complete.

AND.......I follow the pantographs with a laser pen on a top shelf of the frame.  Yesterday in some freak movement I knocked the laser pen off its place and lost the copper thing that turns the light on.  Without that, I can't do pantographs because you can't hold the light on and follow the panto at the same time.  So production quilting stopped in its tracks while I searched.

Could not find that thing because it is the exact same color as the leaves in the carpet.  I searched and searched and searched.  I found lots of dust and thread and a bobbin I didn't know I'd lost.  I was so frustrated.  Finally after about 15 minutes of hands and knees searching I found it!

This is what the set up looks like and that is the piece I was looking for.  Just the color of my carpet!

I'd say it was a FABULOUS DAY!

Thank you my friends!

glen

design wall 4-18-11

Still on my design wall, but I have the top completed.  Now to work on a back.

The Dots are Connecting!

From Judy's Connect the Dots class on Friday.  This is the African one. 

So far: 

About 2 PM this is what it is looking like.  I am thinking the yellow border is wavery.  Hmm.  But it is looking great.

12 UFOs for Patchwork Times Challenge

OK, here is my narrowed down list.  I am ready for Judy to pick her numbers!
I have combined since there were so many and some are in a more advanced state of being.  Some are blocks and some are tops just waiting to be completed.  Carrie says I have to give away some of these quilts before making more.  So that might be in the future as well.  Although how one can give away a child of your own making is beyond me.  I didn't give HER away, did I????


1.  Elephants from Sri Lanka
2.  New Year's Mystery Dog
3. Cow I and Cow 2
4.  Stacked Posey and Blue/Beige Row Quilt
5. Frank's Transportation Quilt and Progressive Jar
6.  Outhouse Blocks and Mystery Orange Snowballs
7.  Mystery Blue Snowballs and Patch No Work
8.  (3) Bumble Beans 15 Minute quilts
9.  Progressive Jar and Karen's Watermelon Quilt
10.  Virtual Quilting Bee Warm/Cold and Christmas Scrappy
11.  My House Hanging and Sassi Strippers Red/Green Mystery
12.  Matthew's Saints and The Polar Bears